Events planned in honor of MLK Day

Monday

Jan 21, 2013 at 12:01 AM

TUSCALOOSA | The Mildred Westervelt Warner Transportation Museum will host a traveling exhibit from the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, “Selma to Montgomery: A March for the Right to Vote.” The exhibit will officially open today, after the annual Unity March that will end with a ceremony at the museum.

By Lydia Seabol AvantStaff Writer

TUSCALOOSA | The Mildred Westervelt Warner Transportation Museum will host a traveling exhibit from the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, “Selma to Montgomery: A March for the Right to Vote.” The exhibit will officially open today, after the annual Unity March that will end with a ceremony at the museum. The exhibit will feature photos from photographer Spider Martin, who was born in 1939 in Wylam, an immigrant community outside Birmingham. Before he was 25, he was already known for documenting the Selma-to-Montgomery march, known as Bloody Sunday. He died in 2003.This exhibition of his work has traveled to Washington, D.C.; Atlanta; New Orleans; and Montgomery.The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, along with numerous other local organizations, will celebrate the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and the 50th anniversary of the civil rights movement today with a breakfast, a march and a mass rally.-The Unity Day Breakfast will be at 7 a.m. at Stillman College. Arthur Dunning, vice chancellor of UA, will be the guest speaker. Tickets for the breakfast cost $10.-At the conclusion of the breakfast, the Unity Day March will begin at 10 a.m. The Rev. Roy Ferguson, president of the Tuscaloosa chapter of the SCLC, is asking that 2,013 people participate in the march. Marchers will line up at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School at 9:30 a.m. and proceed to City Hall for prayer once the march begins. The march will end at the Mildred Westervelt Warner Transportation Museum, 1901 Jack Warner Parkway, where speeches will be given and the civil rights photography will be on display.-The day will culminate at 6 p.m. with a rally at First African Baptist Church, 2621 Stillman Blvd. The Rev. James Williams, pastor of First Baptist Church in Newbern, will be the guest speaker.